Ready to go a country mile

Though he’s not old enough to buy a pickup truck—let alone whiskey—16-year-old singer Cody Purvis might have all it takes to become a famous country singer. The look? He commands the stage with a 6’4" frame, his top three buttons undone as if in anticipation of chest hair. The attitude? On his MySpace, he lists his heroes as “anybody that works hard for the money they earn and don’t look for people to hand ’em stuff all the time.” The voice? Well, he’s got that too: Readers voted Purvis Best Emerging Artist.

Cody Purvis, the 16-year-old winner of this year’s “Best Emerging Artist,” competes in the Colgate Country Showdown at the Virginia State Fair next month in Richmond.

“He’s only 16, but he’s mature for his age,” says Marlina Smith, Purvis’ mother and manager. He started performing solo last October, when the owner of Nelson County’s Lovingston Opry heard him singing karaoke. Soon he was invited back to sing for crowds that numbered in the hundreds there, says Smith, and earning hundreds, too.

“It’s just a lot of fun to get out there and do what I love to do,” says Purvis. He’ll take any opportunity to show off his voice, which bears all the trademarks of greatness, from the throaty low end to the fluttery melismata. He took the region in this year’s Colgate Country Showdown—the nation’s oldest country music star search—with an expert rendition of Luke Bryan’s “Do I.” (He competes in the next round at the State Fair in Richmond September 24.) He also traveled to Nashville this summer to audition for “American Idol,” a longwinded process that consisted of waiting in lines, only to wait in other lines, only to be turned away. “It was all pretty crazy,” says Purvis.

According to songwriter and producer Tim Spears, who has collaborated with Purvis, all that stands between Purvis and a successful career in country music is the ability to consistently write good songs. “The first question they ask you when you get to Nashville is whether you can write a song,” says Spears, who owns Tim Spears’ Music City in Waynesboro and a management company in Nashville, Tim Spears Management Co. “I’m going to produce two or three songs for him to shop around in Nashville. Cody definitely has the talent and the looks. All we need to do is get his writing ability up. What does Purvis like to write songs about? “Oh, you know. I write about stuff that’s happened,” he says. “Stuff comes to me, and I write it down, and it all just comes together.”

At 16, it’s already been a long road for Purvis, who first performed at a summercamp talent show at age 6. “Even in his car seat, as soon as he could talk, he was singing all the words on the radio,” says Smith. “I think he wore out about three karaoke machines before he was 10 years old.”

Bogdanovich: A fine fellow

When the Virginia Film Festival held a conference at the Paramount Theater on August 16 to unveil a new permanent logo, Executive Director Jody Kielbasa also announced this year’s Film Festival Fellow: the director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, whose The Last Picture Show, Mask and Paper Moon established him as a superliterate legend of the form.

It’s also a display of the festival changing directions under Kielbasa. Fellows from past years include Maria DiBattista, a feminist literature scholar who teaches at Princeton University, and Hamid Naficy, a Northwestern University expert on media in the Middle East. As an Oscar nominee who has also written histories of Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and Howard Hawkes, Bogdanovich has credentials and marquee appeal.

Bottoms up, y’all. It’s Virginia Spirits Month here in the commonwealth, sponsored by the Virginia Distillers Association and meant to spotlight Virginia-made spirits. Many local bartenders do so all year ’round, but there are a few special cocktails this month that are worth sidling up to the

From hookworm to heartworm, our pets can shelter no shortage of creepy crawly horrors. But few are as renowned as the tapeworm. The mere mention conjures images of people wasting away as the parasite secretly steals their lunch. Indeed, some have even tried harnessing tapeworm in a desperate

FAMILY Youth Film Festival Friday, September 15 The 16th annual Light House Studio Youth Film Festival showcases movies from local students before they hit the 2018 film circuit. $15-80, 6pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 293-6992. NONPROFIT Salvation Army telethon

When Vera Preddy and her late husband, Wayne, purchased their property on Gibson Mountain in 1985, they never imagined they’d end up in the wine business. Their 150-acre farm was once part of Windholme Farm, and when they moved onto their parcel, they christened it Honah Lee, after the idyllic

There’s always something new to learn about food, and for the past 11 years, the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello has been one of the best ways to learn a lot about the history of what we eat in a little bit of time. On Saturday, chefs, farmers, culinary historians, purveyors and foodies

Commonwealth Restaurant and Skybar is getting a makeover. And, it’s bringing in some industry experts: restaurateur Will Richey and chef Harrison Keevil. Co-founder of Ten Course Hospitality, Richey has to his name The Alley Light, The Bebedero, Brasserie Saison, The Pie

Fifth Street Station is serving up another helping of restaurants, which includes a second location for a Corner favorite, and a Manassas-based traditional Thai restaurant. Jersey Mike’s Subs: Grab a submarine sandwich from the New Jersey-bred chain at one of the newest additions to its

L.L. Bean opened in Charlottesville a few weeks ago, which may be as much of a cultural milestone as the arrival of a Trader Joe’s. The new store at the Shops at Stonefield arrives at a time when the outdoor business is in a state of upheaval on the north end of Charlottesville. Woodbrook

When riding a UVA bus, you tend to see quite a few student-athletes. One day, while on a bus heading toward the John Paul Jones Arena, UVA Director of Transportation Rebecca White turned around and asked the two men sitting behind her, “Are you guys athletes?” They said yes, so she asked what

UVA sports saw some big successes last year: The men’s tennis team claimed the NCAA trophy, alongside Thai-Son Kwiatkowski’s singles championship. And Malcolm Brogdon, men’s basketball alum, was named the NBA Rookie of the Year. Drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 2016

NONPROFIT Splash 4 a Cure 5K Saturday, August 26 Get your sweat on during a 5K and then jump into a pool party, all for the Ishan Gala Foundation, which supports families of children who have cancer. Free-$45, 7:30-11am. ACAC, 200 Four Seasons Drive. 234-4644. FAMILY National Dog Day

The Corner has a new addition in time for the start of the school year. Corner Juice Bar at 1509 University Avenue offers cold-pressed organic juices, fruit smoothies, acai bowls and paninis. Co-owner Joseph Linzon (who also co-owns Roots Natural Kitchen) says the business is filling the need

Family Night Sky Festival Monday, August 21 This festival includes various events from Friday, August 18 to Monday, August 21, culminating in a solar eclipse viewing at 2:40pm Monday. $25 per vehicle park entry, good for seven days. Various times. Shenandoah National Park, 3655 U.S. Hwy. 211 E.

Sitting at the edge of IX Art Park is the new Three Notch’d Brewery restaurant and production facility, which will top out at 11,000 square feet between the indoor and outdoor spaces. The setup is similar to a traditional beer garden, but bigger, and Three Notch’d says it will be the largest

Summer in Charlottesville can be brutal, and this year is no exception (our car’s temperature display read 104 degrees last week!). Relief comes in many forms, but, let’s be honest, an icy, frozen treat on a scorching day is the ultimate refresher. Whether it’s a guacamole sundae at La Flor

FAMILY Lammas Harvest Fair Saturday, August 5 This celebration of the first harvest makes history fun for the whole family. Learn about old-time farm life in demonstrations of everything from pounding yams to ironwork. Pay what you will, 9am-5pm. Frontier Culture Museum, 1290 Richmond Ave.,

As competition has grown among Charlottesville’s high-end grocery stores, a trend has emerged of adding bars. I’ve walked past these odd grocery store bars countless times but it has never occurred to me to pull up a stool and order a glass of beer before picking up milk and vegetables. Which